Edwidge Danticat Quotes

Of course I want the things I write to reflect well on me or anyone who might feel represented by me, but also, I'm not writing a guidebook on how to be or how my people should be seen. I'm telling very specific stories.

Who speaks is not who writes, and who writes is not who is.

I know one of the reasons I first started making Youtube videos was because no one looks like me.

There's something very important about films about black women and girls being made by black women. It's a reflection as opposed to an interpretation.

I write for my people.

What I've noticed about Hollywood is, if you go out there shouting about who you are, they will love you for it. But if you go out not knowing what it is that you're representing, and you are just a canvas, they will make you into the thing they need you to be.

Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you find you.

The best thing you can do is to be a woman and stand before the world and speak your heart.

I don't have a message. You already have all these people telling you how to live, who to be, what to wear, what to drive, what drugs to do - I just want people to see what I see.

If I was singing like somebody else, then it was almost like I was expressing myself like somebody else. So it was always a very original thing for me. It's my voice, it's my diary, it's the way I connect with people.

I consider myself a realist who wants to stand up for women's voices, not when they try to be the same, but when they stand up for who we are and what we see and how important it is that our voice is heard.

In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth. Each of you is an original. Each of you has a distinctive voice. When you find it, your story will be told. You will be heard.

Sometimes I think people are famous because they're themselves and they do a role and you see them do it.

Let your inner queen's voice come through loud and clear. Be strong, be authentic, be you, and you'll do her proud.

My definition of sexy is not just using what you got from God, but also that you represent what you believe in. I don't want people to think I'm sexy for what I look like, I want them to find me sexy for who I am and what I do.

It's all about finding your voice in whatever your profession... it helps your confidence.

I think the most clear, direct way to empowerment is to really know yourself and to really use your voice and to not be afraid of other people's reactions.

I write for myself, first and foremost and I also write for people, mostly women, who just want to be seen and heard and all too often aren't.

Believe in the power of your voice! Be yourself. Everyone is unique.

Each person who ever was or is or will be has a song. It isn't a song that anybody else wrote. It has its own melody, it has its own words. Very few people get to sing their song. Most of us fear that we cannot do it justice with our voices, or that our words are too foolish or too honest, or too odd. So people live their song instead.

When you realize no one else on this earth can be like you... that no other soul may know the beauty, sorrow, light and darkness you alone are given to see... then you will, at last, be the fearless individual your Heart of hearts has called you to be.

I've been accused of being a little pedantic here and there, but I don't buy that criticism. I'm telling it like I see it. You don't have to buy it. You don't have to like it. You don't have to listen to it at all. I'm not trying to convince people of things, other than the fact that I'm trying to make as vivid as I can my own feelings and experiences.

I do not know anything about Art with a capital A. What I do know about is my art. Because it concerns me. I do not speak for others. So I do not speak for things which profess to speak for others. My art, however, speaks for me. It lights my way.

I'm a person of my own opinions, that's how I was raised. I speak what I feel... A lot of people feel the same way but they're scared to talk. They're really scared of the truth - they only want half of the truth. I've been living like that - forever in fear - but I know what to say and how to say it now. I ain't scared of myself. Y'all may be scared; I'm not scared.